Principles of Roleplay
Roleplay in TRP is essentially a group of people collectively making a book, or perhaps a film. Everyone chooses a character (More than one in some cases) and they play that character, so that you have a whole community of fictional characters interacting with each other. Anything these characters do is considered "In Character", and everything the roleplayer does, is considered "Out of Character". Think of it like a film, with the roleplayer as the actor. The character might be mean and spiteful, but the actor might be a nice guy. The two are completely seperate, but its the actor's job to mimic the character as best as they can. The roleplayer has the exact same job, they create the character, and then play as that character. But the two are seperate. Roleplay isn't like games like Fable or Counter Strike. There is no goal other than to roleplay creatively. Ultimately you cannot "Win" roleplaying, if you don't enjoy the process of RP, it probably isn't for you. There are aspects of roleplay which contribute to the goal of creative RP. Character Depth As a general rule, if a character has depth, it is easier to sympathise with them. This helps the roleplayer and others who might interact with the character, as it's hard to RP with a character who cannot be sympathised with. To improve character depth, think about the conflicts within the character, are they an acoholic? If so, how do they cope with the lack of alcohol in the TRP universe? Perhaps they are an authority figure, who naturally hates authority. Does this lead to them hating themselves? Or do they not realise the contradiction? There are so many areas you can look into to improve your character's depth. If you have trouble with this, take a look at a character from a book or a film. Take the character Sarah Connor, from Terminator. At the start of the film she comes across as decidedly normal, but discovers through the course of the film that she has the capacity to change the future of the human race. This means she becomes more responsible, and more self sufficient. Any good character has these aspects running underneath the surface, and most good characters actively change. It's not uncommon to start with a character who is a nice person, and end up with a spiteful and vindictive one. Emotion and Sympathy Emotion is very important in roleplay, personaly I believe roleplay cannot be of good quality without emotion. Generally this comes from the RPer themselves, who must sympathise with their character. It's a good idea to explore the conflicts your character is facing, think about how you would face them, and then think about how your character would. Come up with ways in which their method is better than yours, and very quickly you'll find yourself sympathising with them, and agreeing with them. Once you do this, you become emotionally invested in your character, you care what happens to them, you feel sorry for them. Once you understand and empathise with a character, you can put emotion into your roleplay. Note: This includes fear. If your character is in a situation where they would be afraid, do your best to make your character afraid, even though you probably aren't. This is a big part of TRP in particular, and something a lot of people have trouble with. The IC/OOC boundry Keeping the IC/OOC boundry intact is very, very important. While things can, and must, pass across this barrier (Such as emotion), others must not. Information must never cross the boundry from OOC to IC, if you know something, but your character doesn't, you cannot allow your character to learn of it from yourself. This is the Roleplay equivilant of "cheating", as it often makes everyone else's RP experience a lot worse. OOC goals and intentions must also not cross the IC/OOC divide. If you want a gun, that does not mean your character must want a gun, and manipulating your character to get one is fundementally wrong. In the same way, if you don't like someone, manipulating your character to hurt them is also fundementally wrong. If your character is hurt or killed IC, it is very normal to feel upset, this is infact a sign that you've empathised with your character. However, never let this cause you to act in an immature fashion. If the character was legitimately killed, accept this fact without channelling your pain into a complaint, that never ends well. If your character is killed, seek closure, not a reversal. Unnecessary Aspects Those three aspects are, in my opinion, the three principles of roleplay. If those three are maintained to the best of a roleplayer's ability, they are acheiving the goal of RP. Descriptive wording, long emotes, and flowery metaphors, are all secondary to these three principles. It is easy to mask poor ability in terms of roleplay, by using lots of fancy terms, or writing very long descriptions of what your character is doing. Some of the best roleplayers on the server type only what they need to, and nothing more. Category:Guides